Research Catalog

Title

True colors : (or, affirmations in a crisis) / photographs by Zora J. Murff.

Author

Murff, Zora J.

Publication

• New York : Aperture Foundation Inc. 2021.
• ©2021

Items in the Library & Off-site

Details

Additional Authors

• Butler, Tay
• Cadet, Widline
• Drain, Nick
• Gaskins, Bill, 1953-
• Norman, Nick
• Phyars-Burgess, Sasha, 1988-
• Russell, Legacy
• Simple, Jay
• Turner, Aaron, 1990-
• Washington, Terence
• Young, Rana

Description

218 pages : illustrations (chiefly color); 31 cm

Summary

A chronicle of survival by trailblazing artist Zora J Murff. Murff constructs a manual for coming to terms with the historical and contemporary realities of America's divisive structures of privilege and caste. Since leaving social work to pursue photography over a decade ago, Murff's work has consistently grappled with the complicit entanglement of the medium in the histories of spectacle, commodification, and race, often contextualizing his own photographs with found and appropriated images and commissioned texts. True Colors continues that work, expanding to address the act of remembering and the politics of self, which Murff identifies as "the duality of Black patriotism and the challenges of finding belonging in places not made for me--of creating an affirmation in a moment of crisis as I learn to remake myself in my own image." Nuanced, challenging, and inspiring, True Colors (or, Affirmations in a Crisis) is a must-have monograph by a rising and standout artist. --

Alternative Title

• True colors
• Affirmations in a crisis

Subject

• Murff, Zora J. > Themes, motives > Pictorial works
• African Americans > Race identity > Pictorial works
• African Americans > Violence against > United States > Pictorial works
• Photography, Artistic
• Noirs américains > Identité ethnique > Ouvrages illustrés
• Photographie artistique
• art photography
• United States > Race relations > Pictorial works
• États-Unis > Relations raciales > Ouvrages illustrés

Genre/Form

• artists' books (books)
• photobooks.
• Artists' books.
• Photobooks.
• Livres d'artistes.
• Livres de photographies.

Note

• Photographs by Zora J Murff. Contributions by Tay Butler, Widline Cadet, Nick Drain, Bill Gaskins, Nick Norman, Sasha Phyars-Burgess, Legacy Russell, Jay Simple, Aaron Turner, Terence Washington, and Rana Young.

Contents

Introduction -- Untitled / Terence Washington -- Born to write time / Zora J Murff in conversation with Bill Gaskins -- The negro mountain is higher (2003) / Bill Gaskins -- Black (Me) : 1987, 1993-2000, 2009, 2014 -- Mississippi Divide : 96 Hours, December 2018 -- Kindred : 2014-21 -- Why intent / Jay Simple -- Convergence (2021) / Nick Drain -- Flash blindness (2020) / Nick Drain -- Untitled (masc-ing) / Nick Norman -- One for us (2019) / Nick Drain -- Mediums & messages / Zora J Murff in conversation with Sasha Phyars-Burgess -- Implicit bias test #2 / Nick Drain -- Black (Me) : 1987, 1993-2000, 2009, 2014 (cont.) -- Blue, Period. August 2019 -- Love : 2015-21 -- looking at you / Rana Young -- Free Nigga Archetype : August 2019-May 2020 -- "True colors (Zora)" / Tay Butler -- Self-portrait (Lincoln, Nebraska) (1912-25) / John Johnson -- t Invisible man / invisible sites / Aaron Turner -- Red: 2003-May 2005 -- *Free nigga archetype : August 2019-May 2020 (cont.) -- Sneak dissing (or, y'all got me fucked up) / Zora J Murff -- Plainly put / Zora J Murff -- Révéyé nan divinté #1 (Awakening into divinity [Godhood] #1) (2021) / Widline Cadet -- Liberation: May 18, 2020, 11:34 AM -- Révéyé nan divinté #2 (Awakening into divinity [Godhood] #2) (2021) / Widline Cadet -- Garden: 2018-ongoing -- Black magic / Legacy Russell -- Untitled (Cracked watermelon) (ca. 1890) / Charles Ethan Porter -- Black matters / Zora J Murff -- Plate list -- Biographies and acknowledgments.

Call Number

TR140.M8695

ISBN

• 9781597115179
• 1597115177

LCCN

40031115704

OCLC

• on1285274623
• 1285274623
• SCSB-14178950

Owning Institutions

Columbia University Libraries